Industry Shift To Real-time Inevitable

The SMSF industry will eventually move to a true real-time processing world as part of its evolution through using technology, as well as its response to newer compliance developments such as events-based reporting.

During an SMSF panel session at the Accountants’ Technology Showcase Australia 2017 Conference in Sydney last week, Class chief executive Kevin Bungard highlighted that in order to take more of the human element, and therefore human tampering, out of the SMSF administration process, the sector must first reach a stage of up-to-date data.

“Everyone’s really focused on artificial intelligence (AI), but the first thing you need to do is get richness of data,” Bungard noted.

“The data feeds that we get from the brokers include all the information and corporate actions, et cetera, on a daily basis, so we’re getting daily balances, not quarterly or monthly balances, or anything else.

“So in a real-time processing world, that’s what you need.”

He added a real-time processing world would mean more data flowing through systems and software.

“If you can get real data coming through, that is the priority and should be the focus – get quality data first and then [use AI or automation] to apply rules across clients, and interpret and spot patterns,” he said.

“But more and more, I do think we’re seeing the industry moving toward having more of a focus on the data that’s needed in order to make the decisions.

“And that’s going to move to a real-time basis; it’s going to have to move to a daily basis.”

SuperConcepts chief executive Natasha Fenech said the coordination of automated administration and automated audits was key to industry progress and advancement.

“I think we need to move to real-time audit, for example, and have the two processes going together because that’s where you start to drive benefits,” Fenech said.